In the mess hall, which is similar to Ten Forward's mess in TNG, Trip is beckoned to a table by a fellow crewman. "Sorry," Trip says, brushing him off like a bit of space dandruff, "dinner with the boss tonight." In a private room, Cpt. Quantum and T'Pol are standing in front of a window. "Grand Canyon?" Cpt. Quantum asks. "No," T'Pol responds. "Big Sur Aquarium?" Cpt. Quantum suggests, reaching for a breadstick. "Sightseeing was not one of my assignments," T'Pol informs him. "All work and no play," Cpt. Quantum crunches through his breadstick. T'Pol just looks at him. Cpt. Quantum tries to explain, "Everybody should get out for a little fun now and then." T'Pol tells him they got all needed recreation at their compound. The door twings. "Come in," Cpt. Quantum calls, and Trip walks in. "You shoulda started without me," Trip comments. "Sit down," Cpt. Quantum tells him, gesturing at the candlelit table. They all sit. "T'Pol tells me she's been living at the Vulcan compound in Sausalito," Cpt. Quantum tells Trip. "No kiddin'?" Trip says. "I lived a few blocks from there when I first joined Starfleet. Great parties at the Vulcan Compound," he says snidely to the Captain, who laughs at the expense of T'Pol's race. T'Pol ignores them and attempts to cut through her breadstick with her knife. The breadstick shatters off the plate. The Captain suggests she pick it up in her fingers. "Vulcans don't touch food with their hands," T'Pol informs him. Cpt. Quantum nods. "Can't wait to see you tackle the spareribs," Trip says. T'Pol looks at the Captain, alarmed. "Don't worry," Cpt. Quantum says, "we know you're a vegetarian," as a waiter brings in several plates of food. T'Pol gets a salad and the men -- grrr -- well, they get steak and potatoes. Where's the Tang? "Looks delicious," Trip says, "tell Chef I said thanks." T'Pol delivers a vegetarian-ist speech about humans thinking they're enlightened while they still eat animal meat. "Granmaw taught me never judge a species by their eating habits," Trip says, shoveling a forkful of meat into his mouth. T'Pol gives him a baleful look with her overstuffed pout. Vegetarian, my third eye -- that's not vegetable fat in those lips. "Enlightened might be too strong a word, but if you'd been on Earth fifty years ago, I think you'd be impressed by what we've gotten done," Cpt. Quantum tells her. "You have yet to embrace either patience or logic, you remain impulsive carnivores," T'Pol tells them, giving their food a poisonous look. "Yeah?" Trip says, antagonized, "How about war, disease, hunger? Pretty much wiped them out in less than two generations. I wouldn't call that small potatoes." "It remains to be seen whether humanity will revert to its baser instincts," T'Pol says. "Well, we used to have cannibals on earth, who knows how far we'll revert. Good thing this isn't a long mission," Trip mumbles through his dinner. Guess "Granmaw" didn't teach him not to talk with his mouth full. Cpt. Quantum tells T'Pol, "Human instinct is pretty strong -- you can't expect us to change overnight." "With proper discipline," T'Pol says, sawing at another breadstick and neatly cutting it in two, "anything's possible." She holds up the piece. What. Ever.